Deceit
by DancingKirby
Summary: Mangaverse fic. After years of being away, Mr. Mackenzie returns to his family, but his intentions are less than pure.


A/N: Once again, the manga screws with my fanfics...ARGH! Technically, I think Mr. Mackenzie is just a vessel for Trag, but the sequence of events is a bit unclear. I like to imagine that they were in a sort of partnership at first, but then Tragoedia took full control of him during the events with Mr. Phoenix.

* * *

_White trash._

Mr. Mackenzie sneered at the trailer park. It was very quiet and dark right now, since all of the residents were either watching TV or in bed. Shallow activities, fitting for stupid people. They had no ambition; most of them were high school dropouts. They married young, pumped out the kids, and lived stupid, meaningless lives. Thankfully, _he'd_ moved on to bigger and better things. He could scarcely remember living here anymore.

But, the fact of the matter was, he _had_ lived here once, and that was why he was paying this visit now. It was almost ten at night, but that wasn't going to stop him. He wasn't expecting anything useful to come of it, but there was always the chance that something unexpected would happen.

He strode over to the white mobile home with blue trim. He supposed it was possible that they could have moved, but he doubted it. Mr. Mackenzie paused a moment, silently running through what he would say, and then authoritatively pounded on the door.

From inside, he heard the sofa creaking, and then footsteps padding to the door. As the door opened, Mr. Mackenzie smiled as he had practiced, and said, "Good to see you again, Marie. It's been a while."

Marie had been rubbing the sleep from her eyes, but did a double take.

"I…I…you…" was all she could stammer out.

Mr. Mackenzie supposed that reaction was to be expected. He hadn't been here in over six years, after all. Still, he'd forgotten just how dull and stupid this woman was. She had also grown fat, he observed. He always made sure that his body had no spare weight; as a host body, it was important for him to stay fit.

To tell the truth, he would not have been surprised if Marie had slammed the door on him. But instead, being the forgiving person that she was, invited him in.

"Would you…uh… like a cup of tea or something?" she offered. "I'm sorry, but I'm done out of coffee. And you'll have to be quiet, because the girls are in bed. I let them have the bedroom, because there's only one…so I sleep on the sofa…and…you know…"

Mr. Mackenzie forced himself to keep the smile on his face. He would have to be patient to win her trust, and that meant putting up with her babbling and thick drawl. He walked in as Marie bustled off to the kitchen.

The trailer was very much the same as he remembered. The only difference was, there were more photographs tacked on the walls. Two little girls smiling for school pictures, unwrapping Christmas presents, posing in old but clean Sunday dresses…for just an instant he felt a pang of regret for missing all of this.

Marie soon walked back into the main room with two mugs of tea. As they sat together, she did not try to berate him for his sudden disappearance. Rather, she just acted curious about where he had been.

He kept his answers vague. He said he had done some studying abroad, then got a teaching job at a high school. He was also careful not to say where he was living now.

Marie, scarcely able to imagine these adventures, listened to him with wide eyes, and then apologetically said that there were no free beds to sleep in. She offered to give him the sofa for the night, but he declined. He told her that he already had a hotel room.

With that, Mr. Mackenzie turned to leave. It was late, so there wasn't much more he could do tonight. But then they heard the whispers coming from the doorway to the girls' bedroom.

"_Hey move, I cain't see!"_

"_Ssh! They'll hear us!"_

Marie cursed under her breath.

"I was hoping they'd sleep through this!" she fretted, "Would you mind staying a few more minutes so they can see you?" Then, without waiting for his reply, she told the girls to come meet their dad.

The older one hung back, but the younger marched right up to him and beamed.

"Hi, Daddy!" she said, "I lost a tooth yesterday!"

She had been just under a year old when he left. That would make her…seven? Yes, that seemed right. She had grown into an enchanting child. Her hair was the same shade of blonde that it had been in her infancy. Her older sister used to be blonde as well, but now her hair had faded to an unremarkable light brown.

Now, what were their names again? Was Brittany the younger one? No wait, she was the _older_ one. That would mean that the younger one was…

"Reggie," he said while patting her head, "You've grown into such a big girl!"

Reggie smiled even more. Mr. Mackenzie looked back at Brittany again, and greeted her as well. She was biting her fingernails nervously and didn't answer him. Well, it seemed like she took after her mother: plain and stupid. Plus, she was old enough to be suspicious of him. Reggie, on the other hand, might very well be useful.

* * *

He took the girls out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse the next evening. They could rarely afford to go out to restaurants with their mother, so this was like a four-star gourmet experience for them.

Reggie was full of talk all the way through dinner, about school, her friends, and her doll. The only time she stopped her chatter was when she and her sister said grace before eating. Their mother had taught them well, but this gave Mr. Mackenzie the perfect pause to carry out his plan. Just a couple of drops deftly sprinkled on their food while their heads were bowed, and they would both be sound asleep all night.

It was a delayed action formula…Mr. Mackenzie didn't want to arouse suspicion by having them fall asleep at the table. Therefore, they didn't start yawning until the ride back home.

Marie was just getting back from work when they got home. She smiled at the sight of Mr. Mackenzie carrying the girls in. Thankfully, she didn't seem to think it was strange that they were asleep so early.

"I guess y'all had fun!" she whispered. After the girls were tucked into bed, Mr. Mackenzie made another batch of tea. When they were seated at the rather crooked table, she looked at him over the rim of her mug with slightly teary eyes.

"Look," she said, "I know this must sound really silly, but I really want to make this work. I want to give this another try; for us all to be a family again."

Mr. Mackenzie put on his best reassuring face, and clasped her hand in his.

"No…no, I don't think it's silly at all. Maybe tomorrow we can start to work something out. I'll see if I can get a job somewhere closer to here."

Now Marie really _was _crying.

"Ya really mean it?" she breathed.

"Of course I do," Mr. Mackenzie replied stoutly. He was biding his time; waiting impatiently for the doctored tea to knock Marie out as well. Sure enough, she soon started to droop. She excused herself, giving what she thought was her newly-reunited husband one last smile before starting to snore on the couch.

He waited quietly, until he was sure that Marie was in a deep sleep. Then, he walked into the bedroom. As luck would have it, Reggie's bed was the one closest to the door. As he looked down at her, she flopped over onto her side and let out a small sigh. Mr. Mackenzie stood very still for a few moments, just in case, but there was no further movement.

Reggie was rather small for her age, so it was easy to pick her up blanket and all. He carefully stepped back across the living room and went outside. After he laid her in the back seat of his car, he got in the driver's seat and drove off as quickly as he could.

He doubted that Marie would report this. Even if she did, she would not be able to afford a detective to find them.

Reggie was going to be a hit with the students. They would be charmed with her cherubic looks and bubbly personality. And that was precisely the plan. He wanted someone to draw attention away from him, so he could carry out his plans in peace. He would be sure to buy Reggie anything she wanted, so she would be happy and not miss her mother overly much. Who would ever suspect such a loving father of anything untoward?

Yes, it looked like a dawn of a new era in his life. Now…he would just have to schedule that meeting with Mr. Phoenix…


End file.
